In his interview, McAuley told police the computer was his and he had loaded the program on to it. He lived at the flat alone and to his knowledge there were no indecent images on the computer. He said he only searched for adult pornography. He said he had no sexual interest in children and could not explain how the images came to be on his computer.

But McAuley, of Haydon Street, Basford, later pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children between March 21, 2011 and November 9, 2011.

Stuart Muldoon, mitigating, said there was a very small number of images involved and added McAuley stopped looking at the images well in advance of the police attending his home.

Mr Muldoon said an onerous community order put forward in the pre-sentence report was realistic.

"It would impinge on his liberty, it would ensure he is monitored for a significant period of time in the community and he is on the police radar," said Mr Muldoon.

He added: "If he went to custody it would be for a relatively short period of time and there would be no element of rehabilitation."

Recorder Rachel Brand QC sentenced McAuley to a three year community order with three years supervision and a requirement to attend the community sex offender group programme. And he was made the subject of a five year Sexual Offences Prevention Order. The judge told McAuley his offending was serious.

"You have a relevant previous conviction. This means you are already on the radar for the police," said Recorder Brand QC. You have something of a preoccupation of watching internet pornography, an unhealthy preoccupation.

"I am satisfied it is necessary to make a SOPO to protect the public, but it does not prevent you having a computer or accessing the internet.

"But it has a condition that you do not use a computer or any other device capable of accessing the internet unless it has capacity to display the history of internet use.

"Any computer or other device that you do have should be made available on request to the police for inspection."